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trans women are at lower risk to get breast cancer than ciswomen generally, but when we do have it, we're at much much higher risk of it being missed or not treated until too late

a huge principle of medical practice is that it is more likely for a common issue to have a weird symptom or presentation, rather than a rare issue or condition to have its most common symptom show up.

First off, the tumor I have is called a microedanoma. Its really small, less than 5mm wide, and it's pushing my on pituitary gland, causing it to produce more prolactin.

The way I found this out was through:

Spontaneously developing nipple discharge. Spontaneous is key here! As the posters above have mentioned, if you've recently changed medications, those should absolutely be investigated as a potential cause first. My doctor specifically asked if I'd started any new medications when I went to them with symptoms.

Physical exam. My doctor physically examined my chest, breast tissue, and glans. When they found no lumps, swelling, or anything else to suggest tumors or infection, cancer immediately became far less of a concern. This is an important step. If a doctor tries to send you for an MRI without doing even a cursory physical exam, push back on that immediately. Even if its not cancer, it could be a tumor in your breast tissue.

Blood test. My doctor sent me in for lab work, and my prolactin levels came back elevated while everything else was normal. Again, if your doctor tries to send you for an MRI before doing any blood work, PUSH BACK ON THAT. Bloodwork could also reveal any other issues or rule out certain causes. Mine was straightforward because only prolactin was raised, but if other hormones were present it could have been a lot of different things.

Breast ultrasound. My doctor was pretty sure I'd need an MRI at this point, based on symptoms and blood work, but as a final step I got a breast ultrasound done to definitively rule out cancer or infection. (As a side note, its also far more common for insurance to cover breast ultrasounds/mammograms than MRIs, so this is also a cost saving measure for the patient). No tumors or infections were found.

MRI. With a probable diagnosis and other avenues definitively cleared out (no medication changes, infections, or tumors elsewhere), I finally went in for an actual MRI. It was at this stage they found the microadenoma.

If you're like me and one of the very rare people who actually have this kind of tumor, dont worry! There's medication to both manage symptoms (nipple discharge) and manage tumor size, and they're less than 20 USD for 3 months supply. You will be okay.

If you're not like me, congrats! You don't have a tumor. That means you're likely having a weird symptom for something really common, and you should go down the list of steps described above to figure out the issue. I have a transfem friend who does not share my tumor condition but did experience nipple discharge, turned out she had an infection that wasn't discernible through physical exam but was identified through bloodwork. Bodies are weird!

Because all the money she's received since last year has already gone towards healthcare, medicine, food, and housing and she's currently still broke.

It's not like there's €23k sitting in a bank account somewhere. Every penny raised since she was stabbed last year had to be immediately used to keep her alive.

Have a look at the update history since last year. She's continually strapped for cash and can barely afford to eat or keep a roof over her head.

She wasn't able to eat yesterday, and she can't afford medicine to keep her condition from worsening. She was homeless for several months.

tl;dr: that €23k only tells you how much it has cost to keep her alive for the past year after her stabbing. It doesn't tell you how much money she actually has, which is barely anything.

Please donate. Anything you give will immediately be put to use for food, medicine and shelter.